Dancing in the rain
by Helen Flower
Summary: The second story of the Bat Family - Unlikely Scenarios series.
1. Encounter

**Disclaimer: Batman is the property and creation of DC Comics. I own none of the characters and places mentioned in this story.**

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**This is a prequel to a "A dinner in the Bat-family" (and the second story of the _Bat Family - Unlikely Scenarios_ series). This will be a short story of how Jason Todd and Helena Wayne fell in love. Also in case you haven't realized Helena Wayne it's a metahuman in this AU like she was in the Birds of Prey TV series.**

**If you want to know how I imagined Huntress lookin her teenagers years check this story on my AO3 account (Helen92) to find the link there.**

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It was a dark, rainy night in Gotham city. The raindrops were hitting heavily the windows and the lightings illuminated the sky brazed by the darkness, forcing the people to take shelter in their comfy and warm homes.

But despite the heavy rain, two mysterious silhouettes jumped from rooftop to rooftop, seemingly to outran the rain. The figure that was always a step ahead was a man while the second one, behind the man, was a young boy, no more than twelve. The brave pair that walked in such weather, were none other than the dark knight, Batman, and his sidekick, the second Robin. The weather didn't mean anything to them because the justice never takes a break, even when the weather is a cold tumultuous storm. Such weather was the perfect timing for the criminals to reign free in Gotham city. Criminals that couldn't be stopped by traditional means...

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Soon enough the brave superhero team got to the Gotham's docks, waiting outside a warehouse behind wooden boxes.

A little earlier, Comissioner Gordon, alerted the two superheroes about some goons of Two-Face taking hostages, some students, from the Gotham Academy, among which was one of dearest classmates of Jason Todd and his first crush, a girl called Rena.

But unbeknownst to neither Batman and Robin, a third new player will give them one of worst _headache_ possible.

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"What are we waiting for?!", asked Robin, impatience lacing his voice.

But his question went without an answer. It's seemed that Batman was more concentrated on finding the perfect moment when to get closer to the warehouse.

"Wait here!", said Batman, leaving, after a thug passed them.

Jason only huffed in exasperation when Batman left, but remained frozen to his spot, the cold rain drenching his hair.

As he was checking the warehouse again, Jason saw a petite figure clad in purple climbing the lateral stairs for the fire exit and entering into the warehouse.

Then all hell broke loose inside the warehouse. From his position, Jason could hear clearly the panicked shouts of Two-Face's goons, gun fire shots and loud footsteps.

Jason, tired of waiting for Batman and worried about the purple clad person inside, made his move and entered the warehouse. But as soon as he entered the warehouse, the only sight that welcomed him was utter darkness. As Jason advanced forward, with caution, trying to avoid the thugs, someone swoop his legs, with a stick, from underneath him, making him fall and gasping for air. Then, Jason felt something cold touching his neck, forcing him to keep his head on the concrete floor.

"Are you one of Two-Face's goons?", asked a high-pitched voice with coldness.

Jason squinted his eyes, trying to see his attacker more clearly, but his sight was eluded because of the pitch darkness of the warehouse. But based on the high pitched voice, Jason figured out that his attacker was female, a girl at the very least.

"What it's a young girl like yourself doing here, dressed up like a hero?", asked Jason with cockiness in his voice.

The only answer that he received was the metal stick, whose tip was pressed against his throat, making contact with his skull.

As soon as the young girl prepared to put her metal stick back to his throat once again, Jason caught the end of the metal stick, directed to him, in his hands and pulled his attacker closer to him, encircling her body with his arms in a tight hold.

The young girl tried to struggle in his strong hold, but his strength did overpower her.

"Now, now...", said Jason in a soothing voice, "... stop struggling against me... you only alert the thugs and give away our position".

As soon as those words left his mouth, the petite figure stopped struggling and remained still.

"So, first of all, to answer your question, I'm not one of Two-Face's thugs, I'm Robin, secondly who are you supposed to be and what are you doing here and thirdly how can you see so well in this darkness?", Jason asked with a serious voice.

The young girl raised up her head and watched him in his eyes, even if Jason couldn't see her watching him, and replied with a strong and determined voice:

"My name is Huntress, and I came here to save the students from the Gotham Academy that were taking hostages by those thugs. As for my vision in the dark, I wish I knew why I can see in the dark like it was plain day. It's something that I always had since I was a child."

After this revelation, Jason was utterly confused. He knew that the Huntress was a grown up woman, not a little girl.

"_Did something happened to the Huntress? Did she train this young girl so that one day, she could replace her and take over the mantle?_", Jason thought as worry began to creep into his mind.

But before, Jason could ask other questions about the fate of Huntress that he meet and knew, the petite figure head butted him in the face, then took his hand, leading him away, as a rain of bullets began to pour down on them.

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As soon as both of them got to a safe place, with a little bit of light, Jason couldn't help himself but be amazed by the young girl and how she saved his life moments prior.

"When you stop ogling me, maybe you could come up with a plan of how to save those students", Huntress replied with a bitter voice.

Jason then shook his head, and began to think about a plan.

"Maybe one of us could be a bait, allowing to be caught by those thugs while the other person could discreetly follow and until the thug will lead us to the students and then beat the shit out of the thugs and save the students", Jason added with pride in his voice.

But the look of disapproval from the Huntress's face spoke louder than words and Jason knew she didn't agree with his plan.

"How about we lure the thugs to our position so that Batman could have a better chance of saving faster those students?", Huntress replied with determination.

Jason was irate with this girl. If before he was amazed by her, now he was angered by her because of how much she sounded like Batman while he was scolding him for being too reckless during patrols.

So he did what a twelve year boy does the best, he began arguing with her and vice versa. Unfortunately, their loud voice, attracted some armed thugs to their position and they were taken by surprise by them, then, after being taken hostages, they were led to a large area where the other students were in a kneeling position, with their wrists tied up behind their back and with their head hung down, and soon the both of them were forced to join the other students in the same position.

"Great job, Robin!", Huntress replied with anger in her voice, in barely a whisper.

"As far as I'm concerned, you are as guilty as me about our current predicament, so make a favour and shut up Huntress!", Jason replied with irritation in his voice.

After their exchange, the both of them refused to speak or even look at each other.

And they waited... and waited... until a smoke bomb came down to one of the thugs's feet and soon the whole area was studded with thick smoke, through which no one couldn't see anything.

The only noises that could be heard through the smoke were the cracking noises of thugs being beaten down by Batman. At least that's what Jason assumed those noises were. When the entire commotion started, Jason broke free from his restraints and, based on the noises, was trying to find the right direction to go towards. Suddenly, from his right, someone puts a hand on his shoulder, moment in which Jason caught the person's wrist and prepare to throw him away when the voice of the person stopped him.

"It's me", Huntress replied as Jason let slowly go of her wrist. "We should stop meeting like this", Huntress replied with a sigh while rubbing her wrist.

"What are you doing here?", Jason replied with a huffed voice.

"I came here to take you to the students and free them, together", Huntress replied with the same courage from before looking deep into Jason's eyes.

"Okay, lead the way, stubborn girl", Jason replied with mild amusement in his voice.

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After the both of them got to the students, they cut off their ties, then, with the help of Helena's cat vision they got the students from the thick smoke in a safe area where they told the students to wait for them until it was over.

Then they went to help Batman beat off the rest of the thugs and after everything was over Batman looked aggravatingly to Jason and told him a serious tone:

"You disobeyed me once again, Robin! I told you to wait not to come into the warehouse by your own without a plan!"

Jason clenched his fists to his side and when he wanted to scream at Bruce for being unfair to him, Huntress's voice spoke up on his behalf:

"This is my fault. He came inside after me", Huntress lied in a polite voice.

Before Batman had a chance to reply to her statement, a loud gunshot was heard from the above directed towards Huntress, but only a person fell down in that moment and that wasn't Huntress.

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A few days later, while being on patrol by himself, Robin which took a short break on a rooftop, when the rain started to pour down on him, was joined by an unexpected guest, Huntress, which brought up an umbrella and opened up above their heads.

"You never cease to amaze me Huntress. First, you go by yourself into a warehouse full of armed thugs to save some students, without any plan at all and now you brought up an umbrella. What kind of superhero carries around an umbrella?" Jason said with a smile on his face.

"A superhero, which doesn't like to get wet", Huntress replied while moving locks of wet hair from Jason's face. But as soon as he looked at her face, she stopped what she was doing and removed her hand from his hair.

"And as for the reckless behavior, you're the one to talk, Robin. As far as I remember, you were the one which took the hit for me when that thug tried to shoot me. By the way, how is your arm?", Huntress asked with worry in her voice.

"It was only a graze, you don't need to worry about it", Jason replied in a serious tone.

He remembered how his body acted on his own making himself a shield between the bullet and the Huntress, how he fainted and how the Huntress called him before he closed his eyes.

"That's good", Huntress replied in a soft voice, as the both of them were staying under the umbrella waiting for the rain to not pour so hard or to stop entirely.


	2. Bonding

**Disclaimer: Batman is the property and creation of DC Comics. I own none of the characters and places mentioned in this story.**

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**Special thanks to my beta-readers DottieSnark , JadaRyl and Darkangel4066 (from AO3) for helping me out with this chapter. **

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A few months passed since the first appearance of the new Huntress. During this time, Batman learned the fate of Helena Bertinelli. She was killed and her mantle was passed on to a new girl, who was younger than Jason by two , the only files Batman found about the girl didn't contain her profile picture. Her family name was Bradley, though Batman suspected that the Bradley name was fake and purpose of the name was to protect the real identity of Huntress from someone, so he didn't share most of his findings with Robin in regards to the new Huntress, only the basics.

And Batman decided to leave the new Huntress alone, for now, but he still kept an eye on her.

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Helena Kyle, the new Huntress, didn't know that Batman was onto her and she just enjoyed the life of a teenage girl.

Her only stop before arriving at her destination was to buy some ice-cream for her three younger siblings.

As usual, when she got to the place where her younger siblings lived she entered the apartment through the fire escape. The reason for doing so was that she didn't know what enemies her mother had and what her enemies knew about her mother's private life, so in order to protect her siblings she always did this.

As soon as she entered the apartment she was assaulted by three small figures.

"Helena, what did you bring us today?" asked her youngest brother, Aion.

"Helena, when we will be able to live with you?" asked her twin siblings, Thomas and Bruce Jr.

But before she was able to answer them, a warm male voice started talking:"Kids, kids, easy now. Let your sister to breathe for a while."

As soon as the three boys heard the voice, they got off Helena's body and waited for her to give them the ice cream and then left in another room.

"Mr. Bradley, what a nice surprise!" added Helena as she and Slam Bradley traveled across the room to hug each other.

"How my hero-girl today?" asked Slam, while patting Helena's head in a fatherly manner.

"I'm fine. How do you deal with my younger siblings, Mr. Bradley? I hope they aren't too much trouble" she said with an apologetic tone.

"They are not a problem at all. I still owe your mother a debt and the least I can do is to take care of her children and protect them from harm. But what you, Helena?" Slam said with a laughing voice.

At the mention of her mother, tears glistened in her eyes. Her mother's best friend, Holly Robinson, told Helena who her mother was and why she gave her and her siblings up for adoption. It was to protect them. Even so, all that Helena wanted was loving parents to take care of her.

She grew up in an orphanage until she was taken in by Helena Bertinelli and Holly who took care of her while her younger siblings were taken in by Slam Bradley. What she didn't understand was why her mother made the same mistake three times in a row. First with her, then with her twin brothers, and then with her younger brother. And she didn't know anything about her knew who her father was, but refused, countless times, to reveal his identity.

Helena pushed back her tears. She didn't want to burden her younger siblings with her sadness.

So, in order to distract herself, she began to tell Slam everything that happened in her life lately.

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Another night, another boring patrol in Gotham city. Jason was really vexed by the lack of action from the last couple of was like all the criminals of Gotham were hiding under a rock or something. There was no trace of them anywhere.

As Jason jumped from rooftop to rooftop, he saw a figure clad in purple staying at the edge of one, watching the sky.

He used stealth to get close and to not startle the young girl, wondering if he should join her or leave her alone.

But his inner struggle was put at ease when the young girl turned her head, watching him.

"Robin, you can come join me, you know? Don't worry, I'm not gonna bite you or anything," Huntress added in a polite voice.

Then he got to her side and one quick look at her eyes behind her mask showed him that she had been crying recently.

If there was one thing he learned from Bruce, it was to never pry into other people's business but to wait for them to open up. So that's what he did. He didn't have to wait long.

"Robin, can I ask you something?" Huntress asked in a whisper.

He nodded.

"Do you ever wish your life up until this point was different?"

If only she knew. He always wondered how he would have been had his life been different. Would he have all this rage inside him? Would he feel that life was unfair to him?

"There are many things in my life that I wish were different, but if they were I wouldn't have gotten to this point. I would have missed one of the best parts of my life so far," he said in a serious tone instead of revealing his thoughts.

"That being?' Huntress asked in mild curiosity.

"I wouldn't have met you," Jason said in a thoughtful voice.

And he meant it. Even if most of the time, Huntress was a thorn in his side, she was his friend. She knew how difficult was for a child to be a superhero, prowling the rooftops night after night... and all that that _job_ entitled. He had a crush on Rena, that was true, but he considered Huntress his best friend, his liaison between the superhero life and a normal life. He was so deep in his thoughts that he never noticed that Huntress's cheeks became red like a tomato.

"Thank you," was all that Huntress said in barely a whisper before she jumped over the edge of the rooftop.

Not even Robin's worried screams strayed her from her path. Right now, her feelings were very mixed and Robin's heartfelt confession didn't help her either. It only aggravated her.

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A few days later, Jason was facing one of his worst nightmares: school.

Because of his _other activities_, he was forced to skip a lot of his classes lately and now homework was starting to pile up. He needed to catch up on a lot of classes.

Also, he was worried about Huntress. After his confession, she seemed to kinda avoid him. He felt her presence a few times, during patrols, but every time he caught a glimpse of her she would run away in the opposite direction.

He was so caught up in his little world that he didn't notice the young girl in front of him, resulting in him knocking her down. And her stuff, too.

"I'm so sorry! Here, let me help you gather your stuff" Jason said in an apologetic voice while he picked up the books and the papers that were scattered on the floor.

After he retrieved some of her stuff and handed back to her, he noticed the color of her eyes, blue like ice, and her short black hair. She was beautiful.

But his reverie state was broken by the coldness of her eyes.

"Next time, pay more attention to your surroundings, rich boy! And stop ogling me!" the young girl yelled irately as she passed him hitting his shoulder with hers.

Jason was dumbfounded and confused. Dumbfounded because he didn't understand why he was on the bad side of the young girl and confused because the last part of what she said to him was familiar. He heard that before but he couldn't recall where.

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Later that day, he got a glimpse of the blue eyed girl at the cafeteria. After asking some of the other students from Gotham Academy, he found out her name, that she grew up in an orphanage until she was 9, that she loathed rich people like Bruce Wayne and himself, and that she was a loner. Her name was Helena Kyle.

That's how she was when he seated himself at her table. Alone.

"What do you want, Todd?!"

"I want to apologize once again for what happened earlier in the hallway and see if you're alright," he added politely.

She started laughing with bitterness, then almost immediately she stopped.

"Jason, I have been in this school for a few months now and you never paid any attention to me or most of the others for that matter. Now, out of the blue, you decide you want to know me better!?' Helena asked, enraged.

"Look, I heard from others what you think about rich people, that they don't like to mingle with those below their status. But I'm not like this. And neither is Mr. Wayne. Do you think you are the only one with a hard childhood around here?" Jason asked, clearly exasperated.

"Go on, tell me," Helena said, more calmly.

So he did. He told her how his childhood was like. At least, the most important parts. He omitted the parts where Batman was involved.

Then he asked her if she could help him with his homework. When she asked why he had a pile of homework and why he skipped a lot of classes he used the same excuse Bruce used with his teachers: sickness.

She agreed to help him with his homework only if he would take her to Bruce Wayne's mansion and only if he would meet her younger siblings.

He agreed and so a kinship started to bloom between them.

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**First of all, I want to apologize to all my readers for taking me more than a year to update this story. **

**Well, I had writer block most of the time and life got in the way.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this and feel free to leave a review.**

**Until next time!**


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